


Eglantine Roses

by orphan_account



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Link has so many problems it hurts, Long chapters smh, Lore-Friendly, Reader is human, Reader-Insert, Slow Burn, Swearing, adding other tags as I go on, cursing, honestly im really just using the reader character to fix/comfort link's problems/him OOPS, it’s super fucking slow, link is socially awkward and can’t take of himself, reader swears, touch starved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-13
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-06-27 14:32:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19792879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Legendary Hero you say? When he can’t even take care of himself, how is he expected to save Hyrule?He is just a reckless and socially awkward dork who needs some help, and that's where you come it- cause he clearly won’t get it himself





	1. Oh, THAT’S the legendary hero?

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic ever (other than some short stories I wrote when I was like 5, but we don’t talk about those). I’m more of a math kid, so my writing's probably not the best- but I try damnit.  
> I’m the only person who proofread this , so if anyone sees any major errors, tell me and I'll fix them as soon as I can.

The moonlight glistened gently onto the still waters of the small lake, causing an almost perfect reflection of the night sky on the surface of it. There was a small patch of land in the middle of the lake that broke apart the mirror-like properties of the water. But without that small bit of dirt revealing the illusion, you wouldn’t be surprised if after looking into it for long enough that you would forget that you were looking at the surface of a lake- and not the glimmering night sky.

Every once in a while, a small breeze would gently blow its way through the trees. It seldom would bring a few leaves with it- causing them to slowly flutter down into the waters once the wind dispersed overtop of the lake. Even the slightest movements such as a leaf falling into the water would cause the surface to ripple into perfect circles that encompassed the disturbance.

The water shone like a molten mirror. It had lost its captivating deep blue colour to the night, but in the moonlight; the ripples twisted the reflection into something more beautiful than just a colour. The moon’s bright light illuminated the circular ripples and cast dark shadows behind it- causing the two to contrast dramatically. You would best describe the effect as a goddess tapping the night sky. Rings of light would appear on the water’s surface but then disperse slowly and peacefully. But saying that doesn't do it any justice. If someone was to stop and look long enough to see this- maybe more people would want to adventure more. And ignore all of the dangers that come along with your increasingly dangerous world. Aka, death.

The whole scenery was quite beautiful, you wish you could stop to enjoy it, and let it soak in. But you can't. You’re a little busy literally running for your life.

Two stal bokoblins and a small camp full of bokoblins chased after you as you desperately tried your hardest to run from them. Your body is not trained to be able to run fast for long distances, and you’ll surely have to pay for it later. That is if you actually survive this.

Who knew running could be so nauseant?

Your travels have been mostly peaceful so far as you explored the land. Granted, you predominantly stuck to the paths and only traveled in the day. You would ordinarily spend the nights in stables that were close to wherever you were. Avoiding the monsters that lurked in the dark altogether. That was until some old guy at one of the stables told you not to go out after sunset. So you did exactly opposite of what he said- because fuck him, man. Don’t tell you what to do- don’t put you in a box. You’re your own person dammit.

You felt your knees falter for a moment, and in that very instant you knew you were fucked if you didn’t do something soon. You looked around for a swift second- and saw the forest of which you came from when you stumbled into the monster camp. Perfect. Maybe you could lose them in the trees and make your way back on the path. That way, you’ll at least have a better chance of finding help if they manage to follow you through the forest.

You had misplaced your map one of the nights you were sleeping in a stable- and you’re pretty sure one of the rotten kids that were running around the place stole it while you slept. So you’ve just been winging it- following the paths to wherever they take you. Though because of that, you’ve walked around in loops more times than you care to admit.

What were you to do? Yell at the kid for taking your map? You might be a snarky bitch sometimes, but you’re certainly not going to scream at the poor map stealing child. You stole your fair share of things when you were younger, so it’s about time karma hit you back in the face.

And this time, karma hit hard.

You struck down your foot and sharply pivoted in the direction of the forest. This was the only chance you had so you had to make it fucking count. With the little energy that you had left in your system, you sprinted head-on into the thicket. With every stride of your legs, you could feel them getting more and more tired. 

Wait, if you’re tired, they must be too, right? They wouldn’t possibly waste their energy following you into the forest with trees that they have to dodge, right? You glance behind yourself and-!

Fuck. They followed you into the forest.

You were getting sloppy. Even pure adrenaline can only last for so long. For every tree that you were evading- You would get closer and closer to the next. Seeing how close you can cut the corners so you can save the most amount of energy as you could. The less energy you spend running around the trees is more running away from the death machines chasing after you.

You glanced back one more time. You know you’re not supposed to do that because it slows you down or something- but you had to see if they were still following you. And of course, they were still hunting your ass down as they were before. They didn't even LOOK that tired. In fact- they honestly seem like they were having fun. 

Oh, how you wish you were in their position.

As fate would have it, while you were focusing on being jealous of the monsters that were pursuing you- You failed to do one thing; Actually, run like a functioning Hylian being.

Your foot stumbled over the other and you tumbled, face first, onto the ground. The momentum made you roll forward a couple feet after you fell. Your brain took a second to realize what just transpired- but after that, you swiftly pushed yourself off the floor and into a standing position. You had to keep going. Your very existence depended on you pushing through this and getting out of here. But when you turned around- you realized it was quite hopeless. Your body was in no condition of going any further- and your muscles cried at you to just give up. They couldn’t handle anymore.

Besides, the bokoblins were closing in on you. Even if you tried to run- you would most likely end up collapsing, and they would just kill you faster. The only option was to stand your ground.

As they moved forward, you instinctively moved backward. When your body hit something behind you, a mixture of shock and fear swelled through you. What the fuck was behind you. You turned your head around expectantly, and thankfully saw a tree- and not a monster. Relief briefly entered your system but was shot out almost immediately. You were still in danger- and you had just backed yourself into a practical corner. Peering back at the creatures- it seemed that they formed a crescent-like shape around you. Trying to run now was definitely out of the options- if you tried to run, one of the bokoblins would just smash your skull open with one foul swing. 

You made your choice, and now you had to die with it. Well, you would have died either way, but still.

Even if there happened to be a stable nearby, you couldn’t possibly know where it was. Without a map, you had no means of seeing where you were. Aka, no means of getting someplace safe, or someone seeing/hearing you out here. Aka, death.

The only weapon that you had on you wasn’t really a weapon; It was just a circular wooden shield that you made yourself. The rim was made of a curved pointed metal that was basically as sharp as a dull butter knife. And in the center of the wooden object were metal spikes that protrude outward. You basically just used this to scare away enemies. 

Because come on. No one can tell you that you wouldn’t be at least a little bit scared of someone sprinting at you with a spiked shield, screaming like a lunatic. 

You took it off of your back and wore it on your arm. You could possibly fend off one or two of them with your shield- but not the hoard that was stalking you. There would be too many open points, and you would just end up dead quicker than you would if you just held your ground. Besides, there is no way in hell you’re in any way, shape, or form, skilled enough to handle this many.

Another option is to try and intimidate them by screaming at them and shoving your porcupine-like shield in their faces. But you doubt they are THAT dumb. Once they figure out that you won’t actually do anything- You’ll be dead meat. You can try and curl up into a ball and hold the shield in front of you like a dumbass- and pray to the goddesses that they are too stupid to just lift the shield and kill you. But that seems very unlikely

None of these options seemed promising, and they all ended in your, very horrible and tragic, death. But there was no way in hell you were going to let these fuckers just kill you. Your mind spun with potential ideas on what you could do as the monsters crept closer and closer to your exhausted body. They knew it was checkmate, so they took their sweet ass time waltzing over to you. Which just drove you crazy with anticipation and fear. 

You huffed loudly, practically wheezing. Your lungs couldn’t take all of the running. Sweat rapidly formed on your skin and trickled down onto the gritty grass below you. It was quite clear now that your confidence was disappearing and being replaced with pure fear. Your arms shook as you held the shield up in front of you. You had to stand your ground and stand strong. You couldn’t falter. Not for a moment.

You stared right into the glowing eyes of the creatures in front of you. Their figures now looming over you. And the once beautiful moonlight seemed to add to the horrifying effect which they emitted. It outlined the creature’s bodies deviously- and cast shadows over their faces. Which of course allowed their eyes to shine brighter. You knew that you were fucked and they knew it too. One of the bokoblin’s mouths twisted into an almost wickedly crooked smile. 

The chase was over. They had won.

A shiver ran down your back at the thought of your own death. You had promised Paya that you would visit her again- so you and she could hang out as you used to when you were little. That poor girl- who would find your body? Would she ever know that you died? You gulp at the thought. She was the one who really encouraged you to follow your dreams and start traveling. And knowing her- she would blame your death on herself.

…

You hope your dead body gets too mangled to identify properly, and that she forgets about you. It’s for the better that way.

Better yet, if your body isn’t found. 

The bulkiest monster lifted its weapon against you, ready to slash down. You had to move. But just as you tried, your body froze. Your muscles wouldn’t budge to defend yourself, and it was about to cost you your life. Bug-eyed, and exasperated, you prepared for the end. A sudden coldness seeped it’s way into your core, that you could only possibly identify as dread.

But just as the bokoblin was about to give you a very lethal boop on the head with its weapon- a black, red and green blur appeared in front of you and repelled it. The creature loosely dropped its weapon onto the ground behind it, as it stumbled around for a second- trying not to fall backwards. You guess the sudden appearance of the blur scared it as much as it did you.

Like, for bloody hell, you almost pissed yourself.

In the dark, you made out that the ‘blur’ was a Hylian! You’re like, at least 87% positive it’s Hylian. The speed at which they are moving makes it a little hard for you to pinpoint exact features. Especially in the dark.

You grasp at your chest with one of your hands and hold up the shield with the other, holy fuck you somehow just got saved. Your breathing is arguably heavier than it was before as you take in what the fuck just happened, and is still happening. 

...

Yeah, they’re definitely a Hylian.

You watch, awestruck, as they take down the entire hoard of monsters by themselves with just a sword. You normally would have tried to help, but the fact that your life came so close to ending is making you seriously shell-shocked.

They cut down a couple more of the bokoblins. And the remaining creatures- knowing that they won't live if they stick around, run away like complete cowards. Your savior stands in front of you for a second with their sword still out, it rested in their hand, pointed diagonally towards the ground. They stay put for a couple more seconds- making sure that the bokoblins are a safe distance away. When you guess they think you’re safe enough, they sheath their sword and turn towards you.

You realize this is the first good look you’ve had of this person. It was a girl, you think. It’s hard to see people’s faces that well in the dark. She sported classic Hylian adventure clothes. Their pants were a light tan colour, with brown boots that stopped at just below her knees. It could probably reach her knees, but the sides folded over the top of the footwear. The fabric of the pants ruffled over the boots ever so slightly, disfiguring her shadow a little bit. Her shirt was layered with many things, that created a very complicated appearance. She wore a red shirt with designs on the bottom and on the sleeves. She also had a green piece of fabric wrapped around her torso with a belt-like strap. Hanging off of the strap on her hip was a slate-like device that bore the glowing symbol of the sheikah on it.

What did she have to do with the sheikah?!

On her upper torso and one of her shoulders was what you think is hardened leather. She also was wearing gloves, that looked to be made out of the same aforementioned material. Above the gloves was some green fabric?? You guess they’re wearing a green long-sleeved shirt UNDER the red one? But wait, she has chainmail between the two shirts. How many layers is that? Including the belts and leather? 4? WHO WEARS 4 LAYERS?? How is she not boiling in there? Like damn. Major respect.

You mean, other than the respect that was already given to them for saving your ass.

Finally, to top everything off, she was sporting a grey (it was either gray or black. You couldn’t tell in the dark. Give you some slack) detachable hood with a semi-cape-like thing behind her that was covered in designs.

Damn, what an outfit.

She drew back her hood to reveal her face. Her hair was blonde and was pulled back into a low pony-tail. There were two chunks of hair that weren't in the tie that sort of rested on the side of her face nicely. Her eyebrows were big and messy and she had what looked like two earrings, though you couldn’t really tell. Her hair basically just covered them.

“Holyfuckthankyou.” You manage to spurt out, you just look at her, blinking rapidly. A mixture of disorientation, dizziness, and euphoria overcame you as you desperately attempted to thank the girl. With a shaky soft voice, you persisted. “I don’t even know how to BEGIN repayi-....” 

Something curious caught your eye and you trailed off and peered over past her shoulders. You could’ve sworn you saw movement from behind her. Squinting into the darkness- you saw nothing though. No movement, no nothing.

Deciding it was just the darkness playing tricks on your eyes, you continued with what you were saying. “I,- er, as I was sayin- HOLY FUCK LOOK OUT!” 

She furrowed her eyebrows for a moment, but then promptly turned around and pulled out her sword. But before either of you could react, the sound of an arrow piercing through the cool night air filled your eardrums. You surveyed the land for where the projectile could have possibly come from- and spotted a bokoblin that was hiding in the bushes. Fuck.

It seemed as if time itself slowed as the object spun dangerously towards you. All you could do was watch as it got closer and closer, ready to pierce through your head. You couldn’t react fast enough.

But she could. 

Without even thinking for a second, she recklessly used herself as a shield for the arrow. And it lodged itself in her shoulder. You helplessly watched her fall onto the ground before you. She seemed to drop just as fast as your stomach did. Sudden dizziness overcame you, as you stared wide-eyed, and blankly. She just saved your life. Again.

Your muscles stiffened and seemed to tear against your skin- as your sudden outburst sprung you forward towards the monster who was hiding in the bushes. You hardly thought about what you were doing before you started running quickly in the direction of the creature. It wasn’t just your life at risk now- it was also the life of the blondie who saved you. 

The spiked shield you had made had found its way onto your arm, ready to attack. Who was the reckless one now? 

You had to ask. But still decided it was them.

You didn’t just take an arrow for a random stranger.

Using the side of a nearby tree, you push yourself up into the air and down onto the attacker. It leapt back just before you made contact with the bokoblin’s hideous skull- causing your shield to get lodged into the grassy dirt that was underneath you. It had rained not too long ago, so the ground was still nice and soft. Easy to pierce, but not too easy to take things out of. 

With your only means of defense and offense stuck in the ground- you were vulnerable to assault. You could try to pull it out of the ground, but you feared it out take too long. You were entirely open to attack. One shot from the monster’s bow would quickly pierce through your skull and make quick work of your life. And it was close enough to you that there was no chance of it missing you.

You were at a loss on what you could possibly do, but then a realization hit you. You just had to scare the creature away- no one said anything about killing it. 

Clawing at the damp dirt like a savage animal, you begin rapidly throwing the pieces of ground towards the monster’s face. The mud flew straight into its eyes and it started shrieking in pain. Holding its arm up to its face to block more dirt from getting in its eyes- the beast slowly started to back away. Score!

With one more frustrated scream, it veered around and began to run it’s way back to the camp with the others. Though, you didn’t stop pelting the bokoblin with small stones and pieces of the earth until it ran away fully out of your range. You had to be sure it was gone for good this time. 

Scooping one last handful of ground into your hand, you scanned the area to make sure that this time, there really were no nearby threats. Even though you didn’t go outside at night that often- you had surprisingly good night vision. Scratch that, you had very good vision in general. You could see things that most people couldn’t see that were far away. Your eyes would be perfect for someone who used a bow. But alas, no one ever taught you. A lost opportunity you guess. For now, you’ll just have to deal with having a spiked shield and dirt as your weapons.

Shame. You would probably look pretty kick-ass with a bow.

When you felt that there was nothing around, you dropped the damp dirt onto the ground- causing a soft ‘thud’. You were about to stand up- but you remember you have a fucking shield attached to your arm that is impaled in the floor. Shifting your feet on either side of the shield, and using the arm that was still strapped inside of the board, you pulled upward. But the hardening dirt seemed to hug the spikes tightly- so pulling it out was difficult. 

It still wasn’t budging. You wiggled the object around for a couple seconds in a circular motion in hopes that it would increase the size of the holes that it was stuck in- making it easier to pull out. Your plan worked better than you expected, in fact, maybe too well. When you pulled upward again, in an attempt to dislodge it- it turns out that maybe you put a little too much force into it. The shield easily got pulled out- so much so that the extra force that you put into taking it out caused you to fly backward and onto your butt. And the shock of that reminded you, and your muscles, that you overextended yourself.

Ouch.

All in all, you were kinda proud of yourself for not collapsing already from exhaustion- knowing fully well that you were functioning purely off of adrenaline and determination that was pumping through your blood. 

Your chest felt as if someone was pressing on it, and you could feel your beating heart pounding through your skin. 

A stumble could be heard from behind you- and you whipped your head around in complete and utter surprise. The girl who had saved you before was stumbling around- trying to get up. She swayed from side to side, hunched over with her head down- fiercely determined to stay up. Her arm was stretched across her torso and gripped onto the injured shoulder tightly. The arrow just so happened to be shot into the shoulder without the hardened leather protecting it. 

With one sharp and aggressive movement- she brought her other hand up to the arrow and ripped it out of her flesh; then limply dropped it onto the ground. You watched as she scrunched up her face in pain. That wound would probably get infected fast if it wasn't treated properly. And there certainly was no way that she would survive the night in her current state. 

Even though her legs were spread far apart from each other, in a stable position- that wasn’t enough. Her swaying cause for her to fall forward.

Arguably faster than you were running before- you dashed forward and caught her fall. She flopped limply into your arms- but as soon as she did- she tried to push herself back up again. 

Wow, okay then.

You systematically analyzed your surroundings. You needed to set up for the night so you could get some rest and cook some food for her. The only things that you had on you that could be used to help her heal from the wound was a medical wrap and some food. No elixirs or anything to treat it properly- nor anything to reduce the pain. Perhaps you could go foraging for a little bit and try to find something that you could possibly use- but that would mean leaving her alone. And there is no way you’re going to do that. You’ve already committed yourself to help her. 

Though- as a Hylian, she should be fine by tomorrow- and the wound should heal up fine. That is- as long as she gets some food in her. Unlike other races, Hylians have rather insane healing properties. If a Hylian supplies their body with enough nutrients, and gets some rest- they could heal almost any injury in a rather short amount of time. 

You mean, other than you. Your ears weren’t pointed like a normal Hylian- and you for some reason didn’t have all of the abilities that were supposedly given to the Hylians by the gods. You grew up living with the Sheikah- but that was because they found you when you were just a baby and decided to raise you as their own. 

Impa described you as ‘human’; a race sort of similar to the Hylians that went extinct a long time ago. They weren’t particularly strong, but they were smart. Which might explain your craftiness.

They also lacked any 'magical' properties of any sort. Meaning, they weren't super strong, they couldn't use magic, elixirs didn't work on them, and any food in the land that gave you abilities when eaten had no effect on them. Basically all of the fun stuff.

You mean, you assume. You had never met another human before, so everything was trial and error when it came to you.

Thinking back to what you had seen while wandering around the area- you couldn’t remember that many places that could be used as a possible shelter. Everything was too open, and you wouldn’t dare just sleep in the open woods. Especially after what just happened, you don’t really trust the forest. 

Though, you do remember seeing some old broken down stone buildings around the lake. That would most likely be your best option, considering that the walls of the broken down buildings would provide some sort of cover- and make the two of you harder to spot. Plus, if it started raining at any point in the night- having something like a wall would make it easier to prop up a tarp to block the water.

You slung the girl’s arm over the top of you across your shoulder and held onto it with one hand, and used your other to support her body. And as soon as you did- you instantly regretted it. She might have been only a little bit taller than you- but she was definitely a hell of a lot heavier. Just her arm was insanely dense. You couldn’t imagine trying to carry all of her at once. What the actual fuck was she made out of? Rocks? Probably, to be honest. Her muscles shared the firm feeling that rocks had when you held them. 

She tried to squirm out of your hold for a second and waved her hands wildly in an attempt to say ‘I’m fine! You don’t need to carry me!’, but you weren’t having any of it. You were going to help her. If she wanted it or not. 

* * *

You managed to guide her out of the forest, and with all of the strain you put on your muscles in one night- you wouldn’t be surprised if you would be sore for the next 7 years. She had slowly stopped leaning on you- because after all, her shoulder is the thing that got hurt. Not her legs. But even though she stopped leaning on you, and her was walking relatively normal- you still held your arm out for support, just in case.

It was quite obvious she didn’t want the help though. Which was crazy to think about. She was bleeding out of her shoulder, and near a camp of monsters. There was no fucking way you were about to leave her there to rot. Is she not used to people helping her or something? Your face scrunched into a confused mess. So it’s okay for her to risk her life to save some random stranger she never met before, but you can’t?

She must have noticed the change in your face- because she turned her head slightly to look at you. You could see it in your peripheral, and you did that weird thing where you look at someone but not at the same time. You looked straight ahead- but focused on the blurry figure that was her face. Whether she wanted something or was just looking at you, you had absolutely no idea.

The rest of the walk to the place where you wanted to camp was relatively calm and relaxing compared to what had just conspired. The wind had picked up slightly and swayed the grass back and forth gently. The lake’s surface wasn’t nearly as calm as it was before- but it still looked gorgeous. Small waves slowly rolled up onto the shores of the surrounding land- stretching as far as it could before receding back into the abyss. The repeating pattern was soothing to look at as you stumbled your way over. 

You wished that you could stop for a second to enjoy it, but if you tried to stop walking your legs would probably collapse. And the girl you had with you probably wouldn’t enjoy you leisurely watching the lake as she bled out.

Or would she? You had no idea.

But probably not. You wouldn’t enjoy it if you were in her situation, so there is a good chance she won't either.

Though you managed to get a pretty good look at the lake, even if you weren’t at the shore. As you practically limped over to the ‘campsite’, you took in the last of the lake before you entered. Who knows when there will be another night as clear as this? Better enjoy it while you have it. 

The two of you stumbled through one of the broken-down walls, using what was clearly not supposed to be an entrance, an entrance. You couldn’t bother to find an easier place to get in from, and the worn-down wall was good enough. 

The ‘room’ you entered was quite old, and it was obvious that no one had been there in a long time. Or at least tended to the place. The walls were made of stone bricks stacked on top of each other that had vines weaved in between them. The bricks were a light gray colour, not that you could really tell though- as the walls were covered top to bottom with bright green moss. Chunks of every wall were missing, and there was plenty of rubble on the ground that you needed to move if you wanted even a chance at a comfortable sleep. Size-wise, it honestly wasn’t that bad. You had a good amount of space, so if you did happen to get ambushed by monsters during the night- you wouldn't be trapped that badly. 

The ground was still slightly damp, which wasn’t much of a problem for the both of you; you had a tarp and a blanket you could use. One could sleep on the tarp, and the other on the blanket. But the problem came with the fire you needed to set up. You had a couple pieces of wood with you that you could use to start it off, but continuing it would be difficult. Anything that you could scavenge from around the area would also be damp. If you put the damp wood in the fire, it would start smoking like crazy. Which doesn’t sound bad, but on a clear night like this, the smoke would be able to be seen from a great distance away- drawing unwanted attention.

While you thought about what to do, the blonde chick you were with made her way over to one of the walls and slowly sat down while leaning against it. There curiously was a couple of chopped pieces scattered around in the room. Perhaps someone was here recently? Whatever the situation was that lead to the wood being there, you were very grateful. You really did not want to have to look around for logs and broken twigs. If you started the fire with what you had, you could put the other pieces next to the flames and allow the heat to finish drying it off. 

Confident that your plan would play out, you started stacking the pieces against each other and lit the fire. It started off as a small spark, but as you blew on it- the flames started to breathe. They got bigger and bigger as they enveloped the wood and attached itself onto it. Once you felt that the flames were stable enough, you continued with where you left off unpacking your things and setting up camp. You unrolled the tarp and blanket and folded them into a shape suitable to sleep on, then placed them down cautiously on either side of the growing flames. 

The fire crackled near the corner of the stone structure, projecting long shadows on the surrounding area- and causing the bumps and ridges in the walls to seem much more defined. The fire itself provided a small radius of warm light, that you very much so appreciated. The fire was pulsating, the glowing embers seemed to move in rhythm with the flames, matching every movement almost perfectly. It was mesmerizing to watch, the colours of orange and red gave way to yellow and white near the centre, where the emanating heat was the greatest. It almost seemed alive.

You sat down on the blanket and resumed with what you were doing- you had a lot of stuff in your bag. Digging through your gear, you extracted everything you needed to make a meal for the night. Laid down on your blanket were a cluster of mushrooms, some spices, herbs, and a handful of wooden skewers. There wasn’t much left compared to what you had before, and you would have to forage for some more food tomorrow, but it was plenty for just two people. 

Glancing over- the girl was still sitting alone by herself on the opposite side of the room. And you guess she got used to the pain; because she stopped holding onto her shoulder- and was rubbing her hand gently over the areas where you had touched her. Her face was devoid of any identifiable emotion, and she looked as if she was zoning off into space.

“Hey,” You said softly, trying not to startle her. “I’m making us something to eat, and I have some bandages that I can use on your arm to stop the bleeding. But in order for me to do that, I’ll need you to come over here into the light.”

With a slow nod, she got up from where she was sitting and wandered her way over to the fire, and sat down onto the tarp you had laid out. 

This was the first time you could see her features properly- and holy fuck-

She was actually a he.

The more you looked at his face, the more masculine it looked- but you understood why you thought he was a girl. He had beautiful blue eyes- and pretty long eyelashes. The only way you could describe his overall face is ‘soft’, and sort of round. 

Though, the light allowed you to see some other things too. He had intense dark circles under his eyes, and his clothes were all scuffed up. 

The hell did this guy do for a living? Wrestle bears?

Your ears flushed pink sightly when you realized why he might be so cautious. You didn’t even tell him what you were doing this whole time. Being too tired to think properly- you just slung him over your shoulders and started walking- without a word. 

Yikes.

“Sorry for kinda dragging you in here-” You acknowledged, trying to sound as innocent as possible so it didn’t seem to him as you just kidnapped him. 

Because you totally just kidnapped him.

“I couldn’t just leave you out there. And that was the least I could do for you saving my life.” Awaiting his response, you continued preparing the food, but no response came. 

You looked up at him, maybe he didn’t hear you? 

But no. When you glanced up, he was staring straight at you. He was just being silent.

Thinking back, you haven’t heard a word from him this entire time. Just some grunts and quiet groans- but those don’t count.

Was he mute or something?

“Not much of a talker, are you?” you asked, sort of awkwardly breaking the silence that fell over the two of you. You weren’t used to carrying the conversation by yourself. It was something you were able to do, no doubt- but it just seemed so foreign to you. It’s not really a conversation if just one person is talking. 

That’s just someone awkwardly talking to themselves.

Though, what you weren’t expecting, was a confused, and almost surprised look from him in return. He looked unsure of what exactly you meant. But still didn't say anything.

Well, you guess that was the only response you get.

Even with his lack of speaking so far, you were determined to get at least his name. Referring to him as ‘the boy’ or something like that seemed satisfactory- and a little bit more effort than you cared to give. 

“What’s your name, anyway?” You quiz. And in an attempt to get him to talk, you also share your own name.

“I’m (y/n).” You say as gently as you possibly could, and smiled. Your stubborn nature was determined to find out his name. Even if you had to go through the alphabet, with each and every letter, making him nod, or shake his head.

You were so ready to do that.

You had to spend the night with this fucker. You were going to learn his name. 

“Link.” He said, finally. 

Oh so he CAN speak?

For whatever reason, the name ‘Link’ sounded familiar.

Actually, you knew why. It was the name of the guy who Impa used to tell stories about. The hero that fell in battle about 100 years ago. Paya was obsessed with him. For the most part, he matched the description that Impa gave about him too. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, just like the hero from 100 years ago, but he lacked the signature sword and tunic. His parents must have named their kid after the legendary hero.

Being thrown back into your memories, you started to recognize the slate on his belt. It was called the Sheikah Slate or something like that (Wow, such a creative name). Why the fuck did this knock-off hero have the Slate? It was a very important piece of technology that they uncovered, so it didn't make sense for him to have it. Wasn’t it put away with the hero when he was placed into the Shrine of Resurrection or something? The shrine shut itself after the hero was placed inside too. No one could open it, so unless…

Wait-

“The Legendary Hero, Link?!” You sputter, wide-eyed.

He gave an unconfident nod, almost unsure of it himself. 

“When did you-! How did you-!” So many questions flowed through your head at such a rapid pace that you couldn’t even finish what you were saying before a new one was blurted out.

Oh, how badly you wanted to bombard him with questions. But the short, unsatisfying responses he would probably give you convinced you to cut it short and ask only one.

Well, maybe two.

You were about to ask him if he went to Kakariko Village yet and talked to Impa, but you luckily held your tongue and prevented yourself from asking such a stupid question that you could figure out yourself. It was obvious he had been there, you recognized his armor. You’re not quite sure why you didn’t realize this earlier- but his armor was from the village. It was one of the two they had on display there. You had to ask at the counter for other clothing. 

Man, Paya must have freaked. You get stung with a pang of regret that you weren’t there to see her face. It would have been hilarious.

Though, if he has been to the village already, how long has he been awake for?

He held up two fingers and stared at you with the same blank expression he’s had all this time. What? Is that supposed to mean something? Two? Two what?

Ohh wait, you must have said your question out loud.

But even with figuring out why he was holding up a peace sign- it was still quite useless. Two days? Weeks? Months? Years? Without the context, it was hard to decipher what he could have possibly meant. But you took an educated guess.

“Weeks?”

Your response was a quick nod, paired with an affirmative grunt.

“So what have you been doing in the past two weeks then?” 

He couldn’t possibly have done much. It took forever to just travel around Hyrule thanks to its sheer size. And from what it looked like, he didn’t have a horse with him to help speed up the process. What? Did he just run across Hyrule? 

Sure. Funny joke.

Apparently, trying to avoid talking at all costs, he pointed up towards the red beam in the sky shooting straight at Hyrule Castle.

You stopped what you were doing.

Oh fuck, right. That. 

You had kinda gotten used to seeing it there once it appeared, and you mainly just ignored it. It had stopped raining in Zora’s Domain and the Divine Beast Vah Ruta seemed to have calmed down. It was perched on top of one of the giant mountains that surrounded the area. How it got up there will forever elude you, but you didn’t think for one second that it was caused by Link though.

And to further show what he’s been up to, he handed the Sheikah Slate over into your hands and tapped the screen- making a map appear.

A little more than a quarter of Hyrule was displayed on the small device. The rest of it was outlined in sections. The areas that were shown though, appeared in rather astonishing detail. What the hell? Did he draw all of this? How in the fuck???

Your attention was drawn to the small blue and yellow spots on the map. They appeared all over the uncovered area and seemed to come in a handful of different shapes. One looked like the Divine Beast Vah Ruta, so you assumed that’s what it was- but what were the others? From memory, you could figure out that the yellow squares were towns and stables.

“What are these things here?” You asked, pushing your finger on the screen- causing the map to get closer and more detailed.

Holy fuck what did you just do. You just broke it- didn’t you. Fuck. Shit. Fuck.

You glanced up at Link in a panicked state, but he didn’t seem alarmed though, as he just pinched his fingers together on the slate, and it returned to normal. Turns out you didn’t break it. Thank god.

He pointed at the lighter blue marking. “That’s a tower.”

“What about the other one?”

“A shrine.”

“Ah.”

You still didn’t know what they exactly they were, nor what they looked like. But hey, at least you knew what they were called! But why where they on his map anyways? God, this confused you to no end.

You knew that the ancient Sheikah technology was advanced, but you had no idea it was so fascinating. There was a structure that was on top of the hill in Kakariko Village that was ancient Sheikah technology, and you have seen a few of them on your travels- but didn’t think much of it. No one could open them anyways, and you just forgot it was there.

Wait, fuck, that was a shrine. That's what shrines look like.

But the fact that you could touch the screen, and have it move around just by your finger amazed you. It was honestly like magic. 

What was it powered by? How did it even work? How did it sense your finger, then act accordingly to match your movements? Your head spun just by thinking about it.

You squinted at the screen. Goddamnit there was a stable around here. You almost got killed for nothing.

You shook your head to dramatically remove the thought from your head- and handed the mystical device back over to Link. If you had stared at it for and longer you probably would have gotten lost in it. Which didn’t surprise you. You had a tendency to get lost in thought while you looked at things that fascinated you. Or just in general.

The two of you got back to what you were doing after that little exchange. You, meticulously seasoning the food- and Link watching you season the food.

* * *

After finishing preparing the food, all you had left to do was let it sit in the fire to cook. Now you could finally take care of his injury. Grabbing the cloth wrap from inside your bag, along with your flask, you shuffled carefully around the fire over to his side and sat down. 

“Alrighty! Let’s see how that wound is doing!” you said. “Sorry for making you wait so long."

To be honest, you had actually almost forgotten he was injured in the first place. His face showed no signs of any distress or pain- and his lack of words failed to indicate that he was literally bleeding out in front of you.

And since he stopped holding onto his shoulder too, it had looked as if he was fine.

With a quick nod, he started to take the clothes he had on his chest off. You would have said ‘shirts’, but with the many layers and random straps he wore- saying something as simple as that couldn’t possibly capture the insane amount of things he had to unhook and remove. 

And of course, while he was changing, you did you best to look away from him. It’s rude to stare.

God, someone should tell Link that.

Peaking back, he had only just finished taking off the billions of straps he for some reason had on him. Everything he had taken off so far was in a small pile beside him, with the Sheikah Slate out of the pile, and out of the way. 

Chainmail armor wasn’t the best when it came to protecting you from arrows, and that fact was made rather clear when he took off red shirt that he wore overtop of the ring-like armor. You could see the exact spot where the pointed head of the arrow penetrated it too, as some of the chainlinks were broken and were completely covered in his blood.

His shirts could be sewn back together, but the problem arises with the actual armor. He would either need to buy another chained shirt- or pray that any monsters that he fights wouldn’t hit him there. That being said, the hole was small enough that it should be fine. But you would much rather he be safe than sorry. This socially awkward mess was the savior of Hyrule.

When you realized you were staring at him, you turned away again to face the wall. You felt as if you had just put yourself in timeout or something as you just sat there, staring aimlessly at the mossy stones in front of you.

“You do have other clothes you can wear, right?” It was a strange question- but you had to ask. While technically he didn’t need to wear anything, it was just slightly uncomfortable for you to see someone who you had just met shirtless. It was kinda indecent. But you weren’t about to make him put back on the bloody clothes he was previously wearing just for your own comfort. So you needed to confirm with him that he did have something.

You couldn’t see him, but you heard what sounded to you like an affirmative grunt, and you imagined that he nodded or something. 

Giving him a few more seconds to change into a new shirt, you turn around. 

Wait.-

Holy fuck he was still shirtless- and as it looked like, he had no intention of putting anything on.

Goddamnit.

Why the fuck didn’t he put anything else on overtop. A tank top would have been good enough. Just anything to cover him up at least a little bit. You think that what you said would have signaled at least a little bit to him that he should put something on. But no. Of course, it didn’t. Because why the fuck would it. It's him.

“Okay- You know what?” You said while violently scrambling over to your bag and ripping the only pillow you had out; then throwing it at him. “Just-, take it.”

The pillow landed in his lap, leaning up against his chest- it thankfully did its job properly and covered him up at least a 

bit.

He seemed confused on why you had given him the pillow, but just accepted it anyways- sort of coddling it awkwardly. Link, for God knows what reason, didn’t seem to care that you were seeing him shirtless. 

God, didn’t he know that his body is supposed to be private? You did not need to see his shirtless body. You were good.

Taking a second to calm down from your frustrated fluster, you proceeded to sit back down; and then started doing what you were trying to do in the first place before you got rudely interrupted by Link’s social incompetence.

The wrap was rolled up into a cylinder-like shape and was held together with a metal clip. When you unhooked the metal piece, it unraveled easily into your lap. Maybe a little too easily, as some almost fell off your lap and onto the dirty floor. 

That would have been bad. You weren't about to use an unclean cloth. That would be disgusting.

Quickly drawing your fingers down the fabric, you reached the end- and holding it tightly, you tore the end off. You placed the rest of the medical wrap back in your lap for later. And now scrunching the piece you tore up, you gently poured some of the water from your flask onto the square of material, careful not to let any spill.

There was quite a bit of blood on his skin, most of it had dried a little bit, but the wound itself was somehow still bleeding. Though it looked like it had already begun the process of healing, as there was what looked like the beginning of a scab was on his skin. You were a little amazed by how fast he was healing, actually. Whenever you accidentally got cut, it would bleed out for what seemed like forever before it clotting up and forming a scab. 

It must have had to do with you being a slightly different race from him. 

Everyone else around you who you ever met seemed tougher than you. Even Paya, who was a shy, and sort of weak girl was more resilient. Your skin was softer to the touch and pierced easily. You were weaker- but that never stopped you from doing what you wanted.

Shaking the thought, you got back to the task at hand.

For support while you cleaned away the blood, you brought your other hand up behind his shoulder. While you didn’t exactly need to do this, it just made it easier for when you had to press harder against his shoulder to clean everything off. Aka, the dried blood.

Link flinched ever so slightly when you first touched him. Which was rather odd, considering you were nowhere near the wound. So whatever caused him to flinch was unknown to you. But nevertheless, you continued with what you were doing. Starting from the lowest point on his shoulder/arm at which the blood was on, you placed the cloth gently on his skin and began to clean upwards in a sweeping motion. 

Link had his eyes on his shoulder as he watched you clean his wound. It seemed so foreign to him that someone was touching him- in fact, it was a little off-putting at first. His skin craved to be touched, and it wanted contact with someone. Anyone. Not even in a sexual sense either- that part didn’t cross his mind. It was almost like a hunger. When you carried him before, he was slightly shocked. He had almost forgotten what it felt like to have another person touch him. But when you got to the stone buildings and put him down, there was a strange sensation on his skin where you had made contact. And he had just sat there, confused. It was a good sensation- but why? 

He didn’t understand why he suddenly didn’t want a random stranger to go away after they held him. He knew got this feeling at least twice before; One, when he accidentally touched the hand of a shopkeeper while he was handing them some rupees. And the other, when he had to ride on Sidon's back when fighting Vah Ruta- but it wasn’t to this extent. Granted, ever since he woke up, he didn’t really touch anyone. He didn’t see the need for doing so. And you were the first person who had touched him with care in mind that he could recall.

By the time he finished his train of thought, you had finished cleaning up his injury and had wrapped the wound up with the cloth already. You were in the process of using the metal clip you had to stick the end of the wrap to itself. You opted to use the clip because, in your opinion, it was much easier to use than any other method you could think of to make it stick it to itself. Sowing the fabric would just take too long, and then tucking the fabric was unreliable and would usually just unroll if you so much as moved.

“Better?” You asked, genuinely curious- hoping you did a good enough job wrapping it. You mean, it wasn’t hard- but you were better with memorizing what plant helps with what; instead of actually treating the patient. 

Somehow you almost always managed to be bad at the simpler tasks compared to the hard ones.

And to your delight, he nodded. But was still looking at his wrapped shoulder. Was there something wrong and he wasn’t telling you?

“Thanks.” Link said, his voice trailing off slightly.

Choosing to ignore his rather strange behavior, you moved back over to your ‘bed’- and your attention was promptly caught on something else;

What the hell what that smell? 

It smelled like burnt mushrooms. With a hint of herbs and spices? 

Wait.-

“OH FUCK THE FOOD!” You practically shrieked, scaring Link enough that he tensed up and whipped his head around to face you- then put his hand on his sword, ready to pull out at a moment’s notice. He took his hand off though- and relaxed his shoulders once he saw you dive for the mushroom skewers like a complete dork.

Even though you were trying to lie low to not attract attention- the mushrooms burning were an urgent situation. At least, for you it was.

You see, you were kinda a snob when it came to cooking and food. It was one of the few things you were really good at- and in result, you became picky about it. 

And with a swift movement, you snatched up one of the food-covered sticks and began to examine it. The outside of the mushrooms was a little bit too burnt. Damn. This would ruin the taste a little- it wasn’t supposed to be charcoal-y!

You plucked a skewer from its spot in the ground as if it were a freshly grown carrot, and handed it to Link. It was dug into the floor on a tilted angle for optimized effect while it was roasting in the flames. But it was slightly burnt from you forgetting about it like an idiot. 

“It’s a little burnt, but it should still be edible.” You say, disappointed.

He reached his arm out and cautiously took the skewer from your hand. You physically felt his own hand stiffen when he touched yours too. 

What was with this guy? He reminded you of a child. It’s not like you had cooties or something.

You couldn’t understand anything about him, especially when his only expressions were unreadable stoic faces.

He retracted his arm noticeably quicker than when he extended it. Which honestly didn’t surprise you at this point. His eyes danced around the skewer for a second, systematically analyzing the mushrooms and how they were seasoned. What he could be possibly thinking, you had no idea. But once he was done looking at the food in front of him, (which was just a rushed couple of seconds) Link looked up at you, confirming he could actually eat it.

You gave him an expression that you would think would confirm that he, in fact, could actually eat the food that you handed to him. But apparently, that wasn’t enough. He just stared at you, awaiting your response. So instead you just resorted to signaling with your hands while nodding ever so slightly. You couldn’t really be bothered to open your mouth and talk.

“Thank you.” He said, slightly sheepish. 

He brought the mushrooms close to his mouth and took a shy bite out of the food, and then another, and another. Holy shit, was he starving or something? You'd never seen someone eat something so fast. Once he started biting into it, he just picked up the speed and he chowed down on the skewer faster and faster. You were too entranced with watching this weird display that when he finished inhaling the skewer, completely barren of food, you hadn’t even taken a bite out of your own.

He placed down the wooden stick next to him, and eagerly eyed down another piece- but tried to look casual about it. 

“Go ahead dude, eat as much as you want. There is plenty here.” You urged, while finally biting into your own.

With getting your acceptance, he swiftly grabbed the mushroom skewer that was closest to him. And started vacuuming that one too. You watched, completely amused by this display.

They didn’t even taste THAT good. Especially for your standards. But it was the best that you could do with the little variety of food you had and very few supplies. You knew your cooking was good, but it definitely wasn’t good enough that would make someone practically inhale it like Link was doing. Someone would have had to be fed fucking dirt their entire life to get a reaction like that. You even made a mistake and let it burn more than you should have. So you figured there had to be something else at play here.

The once reservedness of him seem to disappear with the more he ate. Eventually, his excitement took complete control, and he abandoned chewing all together; the food was practically gone as soon as you saw him pick it up. And to your delight, he seemed more relaxed then he did before.

“Holy shit dude-! Hungry much?” You managed to spit out while not trying to laugh at what was going on in front of you. “When was the last time you ate?” 

You asked, but it was more of an attempt to tease him than ask an actual question.

With a mouthful of food, he managed to spurt out a response. “Yesterday I think.”

“You think!?” You replied in complete surprise, you were just trying to poke fun at him a little bit. You didn’t actually expect that he hadn’t eaten in a while- for whatever reason, it didn’t cross your mind. The fact that he wasn’t even sure about when he ate last set off some alarms too. Gawking, you just sat there- giving the most dumbfounded look you could possibly manage. “What did you even eat?”

Link didn’t even notice the insane face you were pulling, nor did he take note of the tone in your voice- he just kept on eating and flatly replied to your question.

“In the morning, I ate some fruit that I found.”

“You didn’t you eat anything else?” You inquired, still gawking. God, you felt like a concerned mother scolding her child. You just met this fucker and your motherly nature was already kicking in.

“I don’t have the time.” He replied- as if that was all the explanation you needed. 

What the actual fuck dude. 

He had to be joking, right?

“Surely whatever you’re doing is less important than taking care of yourself?” 

Link slowed down on his pace that which he was eating for a moment, coming to a stop. He finally caught wind of your very blatant astounded look- and only then did he have the audacity to look slightly embarrassed by what he said. But didn’t dare to respond.

You gave him the most stupefied look you were possibly capable of, but he just started to look self-conscious in response- and returned his focus onto eating to try to avoid your judgemental gaze. 

Was the responsibility of a hero really so great that he couldn't find the time to take care of his basic needs? God, you didn’t get this guy.

Shaking your head, you weren’t sure whether to be concerned or at least relieved he was eating now. But the emotions ended up just merging together into an amalgamation that was predominantly ‘disappointment’, with hints of the aforementioned feelings. 

At least you cooked up a lot of skewers, and they were rather large too. The wooden sticks that the mushrooms were speared onto were about the size of the bottom of your forearm to the top of your fingers- and were able to fit quite a bit of said food on them.

But when you glanced down to check the state of the skewers, you were quite bewildered to see that there was literally one left. That’s right, Link just ate 5 full skewers in like, only a couple of minutes. 

Holy shit this guy was a machine.

You felt a little discombobulated, where was all of that food going anyways? Glancing down at his stomach, it was literally the exact same as before. Did he just absorb that shit or something? How did he manage to do that?

Like, you expected lots of leftovers from this meal, but it looks like there literally won't be any.

You looked up and met his eyes, and he sheepishly looked down. He seems to just now realize how much he ate, as he was very obviously averting your gaze in embarrassment or something. 

Rolling your eyes only slightly, you pick up the last skewer and extend it out to him. 

“Here, just take it,” you said, almost mockingly. “you clearly need it a hell of a lot more than I do.”

When he didn’t take it, you sort of just leaned forward and shoved the stupid thing into his arms- forcing him to grab onto it. 

He looked up at you, about to protest, but then backed down almost immediately. You didn’t have enough energy left in your body to fight about this with him- so you just put on the sternest glare you could possibly manage before whipping your head away in a dramatic fashion.

That seemed to do the trick, as when you peaked back at him, he was shyly picking at the skewer. But eating it, nevertheless.

And by the way, he was still shirtless.

You wanted to keep the ‘upset’ tone you had till he finished it- so he would actually eat the fucking thing. But then you started giggling like a complete loser. 

Well, it was more like a mixture of half-hearted snorts and snickers than anything.

The whole situation was pretty amusing, actually.

You had cooked up 7 decently sized skewers of mushrooms and you ate one of them. Link literally inhaled the rest. 

* * *

You didn’t stay up much longer after you had eaten. Perhaps on another night you would’ve been awake for longer- and enjoyed the fire, but you really didn’t have any energy to do so. Whether you wanted to or not, you were going to sleep. And to save yourself the embarrassment of if you just flat out passed out- you decided to get ready to sleep.

A yawn escaped from your mouth, as you stretch your arms up in response. You didn’t even bother to change into something more comfortable. What you were wearing was good enough.

“I’m going to get some shut-eye, what about you?” You said, laying your body down onto the blanket.

He didn’t seem to understand what you meant by ‘shut-eye’, but using hints from your body position and your yawning- he realized you were talking about sleep. 

So he slowly nodded.

And feeling obligated to do the same, Link shifted his body down and wiggled around for a couple of seconds- trying to get comfortable. You noticed something curious though, instead of using the pillow that you had given him for its purpose- he chose to cling onto it as he rested on his side. Holding it how a child would hold their favorite stuffed animal.

You would laugh, but that seemed ruder that you wanted to be right now.

“Night.” You whispered weakly to him, propping your bag up underneath your head to use as a pillow.

You knew it was irresponsible for the both of you to sleep at once, and not have someone watching over. But at this point in the night, your level of care was at an all-time low and your body craved for sleep.

“Goodnight.” He responded softly.

Never had a few moments deliberation seemed like infinity as you felt your consciousness ebbing away. Your eyes grew heavy from the strenuous effects of excessive agitation from what had occurred during the eventful night. A relaxed feeling swept over your body as you started to lose feeling. The last few things you saw before drifting into a sleep- were a blurry mess of oranges, blacks, and reds as the fire died out.


	2. Let the adventure begin!

Soft rustling and what you could only assume were movements gently cooed you awake. Or, at least into a semi-conscious state of mind. A warm feeling enveloped your skin, and everything seemed off. 

Slowly and reluctantly, you uncovered your face from under your arm. You blinked, then closed your eyes, and blinked again. 

Holy fuck was that the sun?

Directly above you was the burning day-star, practically blinding you. 

Who put you outside? Why were you outside? How did you get here? Where was ‘here’? And more importantly:

What the fuck was that sound?

A groan escaped from your mouth, and you shifted your body onto your side, closing your eyes; desperately trying to get comfortable again so you could fall back asleep. For whatever reason, you were extremely tired, despite just waking up. 

The fuck did you last night to make you this exhausted? 

You could probably reach into your memories to see exactly what you did, but that would require you to become more conscious; which was the exact OPPOSITE of what you were trying to accomplish. So you just settled to cursing your past self and lazily calling it a day.

Surprisingly, the sounds had halted shortly after you signified that you were alive, and not just a fucking corpse. So whatever was making the sounds had to be aware of you, right? Why else would it stop once you moved?

Now you were even more curious about what the noises could possibly be.

Goddammit. Your inquisitive and stupidly stubborn parts of you were dragging the rest of you awake to investigate the sounds.

Practically slapping yourself mentally to wake up, you shot your eyes open. And as you observed earlier, the sun was beaming directly above you. 

What time was that around? Noon? Yeah, that sounds about right. 

Fucking hell man, you slept in again. Now you had less time to wander around before the sun went down.

Ugh.

Getting back to the task at hand; literally the only reason for you getting up in the first place- you shifted your arms backwards so your body was resting on your elbows. Then continued to shuffle them till you were leaning against your hands. In response to your movements, your legs dragged themselves upwards. You lazily flopped your body onto your legs and then rubbed your face aggressively, in a last-ditch attempt to wake up, before you had to resort to slapping yourself. 

Physically this time. Not mentally.

God, you felt awful. Your muscles were sore to the point that you felt pain in just existing. You know, like doing things like breathing. Something that you need to do to live.

Your joints ached if you even so much as moved your fucking toes. And it was to a point where trying to describe it was tiresome in itself, and you couldn’t really bother. Though, a good way to sum up how you felt would just be a series of pained and annoyed groans.

You opened your eyes again- for like the third time now. Maybe you would actually keep them open this time. You know what they say- third time’s a charm.

A blast of light fills your eyes as you adjust to the sudden change between nothingness and reality. Once the weird colour-filter over your eyes dispersed, you were actually able to see and look around. You didn’t detect what was making the sound though; just some of your supplies that were from your bag scattered around, and a make-shift campfire.

With not seeing anything that could have possibly caused any sounds, you continued your search and turned your head further to look at the other side of the room. 

Unless of course, you had just imagined the sounds, but that would imply that you were going crazy- and you didn’t like that thought, so you quickly discarded it. Another equally possible explanation was that the thing that was making the sound ran away when it saw you move. 

But that was boring. And honestly, you would prefer the former option compared to that.

Wait fuck- it was neither. You found it. You think, at least. It was a blonde Hylian male that you vaguely recognized, standing there looking at you with wide-open eyes. He looked almost like a statue with his lack of motor reactions. It was kinda funny, to be honest.

To be fair, you had just woken up. So really, everything seemed oddly funny to you. Someone could probably throw a fucking pebble at you and you would literally die from laughter.

You're not sure how you didn't notice him before, but you blame the fact that you just woke up.

You squinted at him, you definitely recognized him. You had never seen bags so dark before, so they were kinda hard to forget. But where had you seen him? And why was he with you in a worn-down stone room in the middle of nowhere? 

It seemed that you would get your answers- because your brain had finally decided to come back from its lunch break- as you started to remember who he was. 

Oh. Fuck. Right.

Him.

The Hero of Hyrule himself, in flesh and bones.

At least he had the grace to wear a shirt now. So that’s an improvement compared to last night.

Link was standing there, kinda awkwardly, as if you had just caught him in an act. But he was doing literally nothing bad from what you could tell. He had his knee in the air- and had the tarp that you gave him last night laying overtop, folded to about the same dimensions that you had it in before you unrolled it. 

Huh, looks like his creepy staring paid off, as he actually took notice of details.

His two hands were clasped over top of the animal skin tarp. The part closest to his body was curled up into a cylinder as it was before, and he seemed to be rolling it? From what you observed, it looked like he was cleaning up? 

Or at least he was. Now, he just stood there looking like a startled Mountain buck before it ran away. And part of you expected him to do the aforementioned action, but no. He just stood there- gracelessly.

Was he really standing there awkwardly though? It probably just looked awkward to you from the weird angle you were viewing him at, combined with the fact that he was staring back at you.

Actually no, it was awkward. The two of you were just looking at each other as if you had started a staring contest mentally. 

But the rules also stated that you couldn’t move or talk.

Forget what you said about your brain coming back from its lunch break, it was clearly still gone- considering you failed to take notice of how weird you were being. You were being almost as bad as Link, which by itself was bad. And the fact that your social skills were now comparable was even worse.

And also, what you didn’t expect; was that Link would be the first to look away.

“Sorry for waking you up.” He said, finally moving, and losing the staring contest. Ha. Take that, Link. You had just won the contest that he didn’t even know was going on. Link could suck your metaphorical dick.

Staying still for a couple more seconds to confirm your victory, (which would have probably just looked like you were thinking for a moment) you responded.

“Don’t worry about it. It was about time I woke up anyways.” You stated. “It’s like, noon or something.”

He gave a quick nod to confirm the time. At least, that’s what you assumed he was doing when he nodded. You couldn't fucking tell with this guy.

And even with your visibly confused face, he didn’t take note- and continued to clean up your stuff. 

That’s right, YOUR stuff. 

This fucker was trying to be polite or some shit, but there was no way in hell you would let him. At least, by himself, while you just sat there and watched.

You promptly stood up from where you slept and quickly walked over to him.

“Don’t worry about cleaning up, I got it.” You encouraged- while trying to take tarp away from him.

But to your surprise, he turned his body to face away from you- so you couldn’t grab it from him.

Ugh, this fucker was almost as stubborn as you were. Doesn’t he have a world to save or something?

You decided to just ignore the unreasonable part of you that was screaming at you to rip it from his hands and do it yourself. Instead, you resorted to packing away some other items of yours into your bag.

Unfortunately, you only had enough self-control to do that, but your body was still clearly upset about you betraying it, so your face scrunched up into an angry mess. But again- luckily for you, Link didn’t seem to notice- which saved you from him thinking you were upset about something so petty. Because you weren’t.

Well, at least half of you wasn’t.

Inspecting his movements a little closer while you packed, he seemed to be rushing? Like, it was unusually fast for someone who was cleaning up. What the fuck? If he needed to go somewhere, then why didn’t he just let you handle the cleaning. It was YOUR stuff, and YOU were the one that carelessly threw your things across the floor like a savage animal- looking for everything you needed yesterday. 

You hadn’t even noticed in any capacity last night how much of a mess you made.

Well, it wasn’t really that bad, but when put next to the already dirty floor, it looked as if a camp of bokoblins lived here, and rampaged around for 100 fucking years.

Is it ingrained into every hero’s head to randomly help every stranger with their needs? You almost scoughed, it was as if you were some sort of side quest he needed to complete. Which was absolutely insane. You could do stuff on your own. You don’t need his help.

...

Okay, maybe you should stop taking this so personally.

* * *

Between the two of you, you managed to pack everything away in a timely manner. You guess what they say about two hands being better than one was right. Even though there wasn’t much communication between you, everything turned out relatively okay. If one of you were to go for the same item at the same time to clean away, one of you would just move onto a different item.

Look at you two, being functions beings. What an accomplishment.

You knew you had to get on the road soon. It would be too dark if you waited any longer, and you would most likely have to camp out here again for the night. Traveling around took like, 3 times the normal length for you- and the fact that you had no map was mostly the culprit for that abysmal truth. Stupidly often you would run into random camps of monsters- (like what happened last night)- because you had no map that marked them off to avoid. And you had hardly anything to protect yourself with. 

Basically, your life was just hanging off of a fucking string made of pure luck.

Yay, you. Good going.

Though, now (unlike before) you could actually see your destination. Far away, if you tried hard enough, you could see the tips of Dueling Peaks, just peeking over the top of the treetops.

But, that didn't even do much help. You knew the direction that you had to go in, but actually finding the right paths and stables was a task all by itself. 

Once you got through the two mountains, it was smooth sailing, you remembered at least that much of the area. But getting there was the problem. There were too many monster camps around in the area. 

God, maybe you could buy a map at one of the stables? But there is a chance they won’t even have a map there. Then you’re just fucked. Besides, you barely know where the nearest stable is. You know you saw one on Link's map last night- but you couldn't quite remember where it was.

You furrow your brows and bite your lip thinking about it.

To be honest, you were probably going to just stand there all day thinking about the best course of action to do. You found it rather easy to get lost in your imagination.

“Thanks.” Link said, quietly. Completely snapping you out your thoughts. 

He was standing at the doorway, most likely exiting the building that the two of you were in. 

Right. He was leaving.

The two of you had finished cleaning up, so it only made sense that he was going. 

And yet, it for some strange reason still surprised you.

“No problem, it was the least I could do after all.” You replied. “And if in our travels, we ever cross paths again, I’ll certainly have lots of food for you next time!” 

He gave you an almost delighted nod- and you snorted in response. Then he turned around and proceeded to leave.

That left you, alone. In a room- by yourself. 

Which was fine. You were used to being alone in your travels.

It was fine.

You’re used to this.

You became acutely aware of the silence, and the sounds that encompassed you- and you held your breath. 

Your stomach seemed to twist slightly. Even though you could hear the birds chirping around you, your eardrums just rang with the eerie pitch of the void. 

God, you hope he would be okay.

You turned back around and tried to continue your thoughts- as a physical way to remove the thought from your head so you could concentrate. You had to figure out what your plan was for today and tomorrow.

But you couldn’t focus.

He didn’t seem to be eating properly, which sort of concerned you. He said he ‘didn’t have the time’ or some shit like that. Which was fucking ridiculous. 

You hoped that from the mini-lecture you gave him last night, that he would change his ways- but you seriously doubted it. He just- didn’t seem to care too much- and recklessly threw himself at everything to help everyone but himself. Like last night- he fucking used himself as a shield?? WHO DOES THAT?!?! One of these times, he is going to get himself seriously hurt. And no one will be around to help him.

It was as if he didn’t know how to take care of himself.

In just two weeks, he ventured around half of Hyrule- and had already calmed down a Divine Beast. How was that even possible? It didn’t even seem plausible to do in a couple months, let alone two weeks. There was no way that anyone could do that, and be remotely healthy in any sense. 

But then, you remembered the dark ass bags he sported under his eyes- and it all started to make a bit more sense. 

He was pushing himself. He had to be. The fact that he wasn’t eating or sleeping well just confirmed it.

Someone needed to be there to regulate him, because he clearly wasn’t doing a good job by himself. 

It was as if he didn’t know his own limits. Or if he did, he was just ignoring them.

Goddamnit. You had only met this fucker, and you were already worried about him. Your motherly instincts were really starting to show. 

Maybe you should go with him.

No. Stop it. He should be fine. He’s been surviving this long so far, right? You have to give him some credit for that. You didn’t need to take care of him. He was a grown man, not a child.

For fuck’s sake, he had a sword- and saved your ass. You’re sure he is perfectly capable. Maybe the bags and his lack of eating was a once-off thing.

Maybe he takes care of himself like a normal person, and you had just caught him on a bad day or something.

You ground your teeth together- completely anxious.

Fuck.

In a moment of pure spontaneous rush, you turned around. 

Some form of madness must have struck you in that very instant because then you grabbed your bag and ran after him.

“Wait!” You exclaimed. And to your surprise, he actually turned around and looked at you, listening. 

Which was kind of a stupid thought. Of course he would turn around- most people would. You would have to be a special type of jackass to not listen to someone when they call after you. But you guess that in your head, you already anticipated rejection from what you were about to ask him- so for some reason you assumed he would act accordingly to your thoughts.

“Where are you going?” You inquired while trekking up beside him.

He seemed to pause for a moment, to process what you had asked, and how to exactly respond- most likely trying to use the least amount of words possible.

The way he talked was so fucking weird. It was as if he fed his words to a pack mule, then waited at the other end for it to shit it out. 

Like, it wasn’t bad, it was just different than what you were accustomed to. The drawn-out silences out have to be something you would need to get used to. 

That is if he actually agrees.

“The Great Fairy, then to Vah Naboris.” He replied flatly. What he said was simple, but it got the point across. Nothing more, nothing less.

“Let me accompany you to the Great Fairy then. I have to get back to Kakariko Village anyways.” 

You didn’t have to go back to Kakariko Village. You were just worried about his shitty ass.

Well, that was a half-lie. It was about time you went back to your home- and you had promised Paya you would. You’re just killing two birds with one stone. That's all.

And before you could even explain yourself with a million excuses on why you needed to go with him- he nodded.

It wasn’t even a joke. This guy didn’t have a sense of humor from what you could tell. He was actually allowing your annoying ass to go with him.

Holy shit.

The two of you just stood there for a moment- both kinda surprised on what just happened, but for completely different reasons.

“Oh-, thanks!” You said, gracelessly shattering the overwhelmingly loud silence. 

He looked at you for a couple more seconds, as if he was analyzing your expression- before turning around and walking. Without a single word.

Why exactly did you want to travel with this socially awkward Hylian again?

Oh right. Because you have literally no self-control.

* * *

You trailed slightly behind Link as the two of you walked down the path together in silence. That might sound as if it was somewhat awkward, but it wasn’t. Both of you seemed to be lost in thought- and weren’t really paying attention to the other.

Link was definitely thinking about something though. You had no idea what it could possibly be. You knew very little about the guy, other than things you assumed about him or observed. His quiet and held-back nature was mainly the part to blame here.

Though it was vastly unusual to you, you sort of enjoyed traveling with another person so far. It was definitely a lot different than being alone. Having another person with you meant that you didn’t have to be on guard as much as you usually had to be. Don’t get you wrong, you still had to pay attention to your surroundings- but with another person there you just had to pay less. 

Half the amount. 

It allowed you to get lost in your thoughts, and really soak in and enjoy the nature that surrounded you and him. The forest was humming with life all around you. It was relaxing- gazing up at the green canopy, searching for the birds whose songs you could hear. And it gave you something to do while you walked. The sun broke through the cracks of the leaves, lighting up the forest floor. Some flowers rested at the bases of the giant trees that were in the forest beside you. It looked gorgeous, but you were pretty sure that was the forest you almost died in last night. So needless to say- it definitely took away from the awe that you probably would have had. 

On the other side of you was a meadow. It was a small but pretty expanse of grass and field flowers, that had grass rustling gently in the breeze. Though you couldn’t see too much of it, there was a bunch of rocks around the path that blocked most of your view. The path that you were on was encompassed by stones on either side, making everything seem big in comparison to you. The way the stones followed the path was quite peculiar too, it looked as if someone had carved a path through the ground for the path. It lifted your surroundings further into the sky and made you seem so tiny and minuscule next to it. It almost mimicked how the sky made you feel while looking at it, it made you feel like nothing in a universe of everything. Granted, this was on a way smaller scale, but the tugging feeling that would appear in your chest was still there nevertheless. But don’t get you wrong- it was still very pretty looking to you. The rock’s gray colour contrasted quite well against the green tones that swept across the area. 

You trudged on, taking in the fragrance of the flowing grass and the earth. Each breath of yours seemed fresh and cleansing, flowing freely into your lungs- and out just as easily.

Normally you would stop to enjoy it, but you were with someone else now, so you couldn’t stop whenever you felt like it.

The sun shone brightly, lighting up the dirt and grass path ahead of you. It was decorated with outgrown roots, wildflowers and fallen leaves. It was actually barely visible, and you understood now why you couldn’t find it last night. It was mostly made out of grass and blended seamlessly into its surroundings. Further ahead, it looked more ‘defined’ but where you were walking was just plain old grass.

The sky above you seemed rather clear. There were hardly any clouds in the sky, other than some wisps of white that dappled the air above you. Off in the distance, in the direction of the sea loomed a giant grey mass that was slowly floating its way over to the land. Most of the rain in Hyrule usually came from the sea. The immense body of water would call forth clouds to rain upon life. Storms always came from somewhere else, very few times had you seen a cloud form above you. Granted, you don’t usually sit down and watch the sky for hours- the day-sky that was. You were more of a night-sky kind of person. But you enjoyed looking at the nature around you more than what was overhead. 

That didn’t mean you don’t like it though.

Just like nature, the sky still never failed to amaze you though, it was filled with mysteries and seemingly endless amounts of space. It stretched on for what seemed like forever, but did it ever end? Is there a place somewhere that doesn’t have a sky? What would that look like? You imagine that it would just be dark, like a void. Though perhaps that’s what the night sky is- the day is washed away when the sun goes down to sleep, and then you’re left without a sky. But then that allows the stars and moon to shine through- giving a different kind of light.

It always looked different though, no two day’s sky ever looked the exact same. It was ever-changing, it’s various colours of navy blue, black, lavender, robin’s egg blue, turquoise, and fiery oranges gave way for a vast palette of colour for the sky to pick from. Sometimes the clouds were puffy and tall, other times they were no more than mere wisps, dashed across the sky by a divine paintbrush or something. Depending on the time, twinkling stars dangled from the sky from the heavens, accompanied by the radiant white moon, and other times it was consumed by the blinding sun. Though when the sun started to fall was when most of the colours made their entrance. It would be painted with various warm colours of the rainbow- before giving way to the entrancing black. 

The sky was a compelling mystery in itself.

Part of the reason why you prefer ‘nature’ over the sky was that the sky made you feel like nothing. Compared to the vast area above you, you meant nothing. Your struggles, your pains, your happiness- they meant nothing to the sky. You could do nothing to ever affect it, or be apart of it. It made you feel so useless.

But enough of that, you should really stop staring at the sky above you and instead on the path of which you’re walking on. If you learned anything from last night, it was to look forward while you move- so you don’t fall flat on your face like a complete idiot.

Link walked ahead of you, looking straight ahead, and alert. The complete opposite of you. And though you couldn’t see his face, you imagined he had the stoic face he usually wore.

Usually? You probably mean always. 

Literally, so far, the only two ‘emotions’ you've seen him have are ‘sheepish’, and fucking nothing. Though that hardly counts. No emotions shouldn’t count as an emotion, but you counted it anyway so it didn’t look as sad. 

Hell, you haven’t even seen this guy smile.

You wondered for a second if that would change. You had at least two days of travel ahead of you till your destination- and surely he would smile at least ONCE in that time.

Two days? Maybe? Probably? 

Thinking back, you had no idea where you were. Like, none. Part of the reason why you were walking behind Link was so that he could guide the two of you. Since he seemed to know a hell of a lot more than you where the two of you were. 

He had the Sheikah Slate with him, that had a map of some sorts on it. 

But he wasn’t even checking it??? Did he just memorize the area, or was he lost and acting like everything was fine?

Cause that would be hilarious.

You looked around for a moment to try and get a good look at where the two of you were- though you didn’t recognize much. Dueling Peaks seemingly disappeared?? It wasn’t in the direction it normally would be- that direction being in front of you. Like, you should be walking TOWARDS the giant mountains- not wherever you were going now. You could still SEE the two mountains, but they weren’t at the right angle they should’ve been at. From where you were, they looked like one mountain- you could hardly see the crack in between them. 

If you were going the right way, you should be able to see the distinct opening between the two colossal cliffs. 

Well, ‘right’ wasn’t exactly the correct word. 

There wasn’t really any other entrance into Kakariko Village, and you knew that for a fact- you lived there for most of your life. 

That was unless you wanted to either climb up a steep mountain cliff- or to walk all of the ways around the mountain so you could enter it from behind through the Great Fairy’s Spring. But doing either of the other ways in was tedious and took forever. And with what you understood about Link- he wouldn’t waste his time doing either way. You didn’t pitch him as one who would enjoy the ‘scenic route’ as you would. 

It just didn’t make sense. You had to be going somewhere else. That was the only possible explanation. Unless you were missing some important details, but you seriously doubted it. You were pretty good at putting things together.

Dueling Peaks was literally over to your right, ways away. So where was he taking you? You conveniently couldn’t remember the geography of the area, so you were at a loss.

Time to ask him, you guess.

“Hey, Link?” You inquired.

Your call to him quickly became rhetorical though. There was no response from him in return, but you just assumed that he was listening- because what the fuck else would he be listening to. You are in the middle of nowhere. It’s not like he has an orchestra in his head that plays music that reacts to his surroundings or some shit that he is listening to.

But like, come on dude. A head turn- or even a nod would be better than this shit. You just need something that signifies that he is paying attention to you- and is not sleepwalking.

Despite him probably being brain dead, you continued.

“Where are we going? Isn’t the way to Kakariko village that way?” You point towards the mountains- but then instantly feel stupid after. He isn’t looking at you, idiot. It’s not like he has eyes at the back of his head. So you just awkwardly retracted your hand.

“We’re taking a detour to Riverside Stables.”

“Huh? Why?”

“There's a herd of horses down near there," Link said, finally turning his head to look at you. "I'm catching one for you."

You guess he could see your visible confusion, and when you were about to protest that he didn’t need to do that- he cut you off.

“It’s because you’re too slow.”

Wh-!?

Excuse you?

Bitch?

You were about the same speed of him while walking- and the only reason why you were behind him was so you could zone off. Not because you were slow at walking.

But just as you were about to get offended as all hell at him- you caught his face.

He was intently looking at you with the most fatuous grin you have ever seen.

Wait, fuck.

Did-

Did he just- 

Holy shit he just- 

Made a joke!?!?

That sneaky bastard. You didn’t even know he was capable of smiling. So humour was out of the question for you. But there he went- and just fucking teased you. You were so off guard, and not at all prepared for that. 

You could not believe it.

Once he saw that you realized what he had just done, he promptly turned his head back around, smiling to himself. His walk became slightly more perky, clearly proud of himself- as if that was the best thing he has ever done.

He looked like a dork. And it became apparent to you that was the first time he’s ever teased someone- because he was so overly proud of it. And his ears were slightly more pinkish than normal- clearly showing off his slightly flustered and excited mood.

Well, at least he was trying.

Cute.

That’s one of the reasons you’re kinda glad that you’re ‘you’, and not like literally everyone else. You didn’t have as many tell-tale signs of your emotions like Hylians or the Sheikah did. Or, at least, you were better at hiding them. While your ears still sometimes turned red when flustered, it was less obvious. Your hair most of the time covered them, so sometimes it looked like you didn’t even have ears. You sometimes would tuck your hair behind your ears to get it out of your face- or put it up- but those were the only time's someone could really see them. Plus, your ears didn’t stick out as everyone else’s did, so they couldn’t really be seen from behind as Link’s could.

Oh man, if anyone else tried to cover their ears with their hair, it would be fucking hilarious. They would just be left with either a failed and dissatisfying attempt- or a fucking deformed-looking head, and the thought of that was priceless.

You would pay money to see that.

But the advantages of your race basically just stopped there, at a purely social and cosmetic boost. Which was boring as all hell. 

You wondered what it would be like to use magic or anything of that sort. You, of course, was limited to only what you as a person could do. You couldn’t enhance yourself by simply drinking an elixir. You had to manually put in the effort to gain muscles to get stronger or practice running to get faster. That being said, you often humoured the thought of you being able to run super fast after just eating something. That would be so fucking fun.

“What’s it like being a Hylian?” You blurt out. Clearly failing to realize how weird of a question that is.

His perky walk had stopped, and he faltered a second when he heard your question. He was clearly thrown off.

“....What?” He responded. You could hear the blatant confusion in his voice.

You trot up beside him so you can explain yourself easier. Talking with your hands for some reason always helps you describe what you’re trying to say- so maybe this will make it easier on him.

“I mean, I’m not technically a Hylian- I’m sort of like a bootleg rip-off one.” you snorted “So I was wondering what it was like actually being one.”

He eyed you up and down for a moment- and you helpfully pointed at your ears. Usually, when a guy does that, it means that they’re checking you out. But for Link, he was literally just seeing what you were talking about. 

He’s so innocent holy shit.

“When I was younger, I was told that Hylians had special abilities” you continued, looking straight forward on the path ahead of you. “Like super strength, or that you guys could see in slow motion when you fought.”

No response. He remained silent, either he as thinking of a response, or was waiting for you to finish. But whatever the case was- you decided to continue talking.

“Pure-bred Hylians, that was. Most people only have the remains of what you guys were said to have nowadays.” You corrected yourself. “After the Calamity, different races were forced to intermingle with each other. There were a lot fewer people around- so everyone had to make do with what was left. Therefore, the blood of the Hylians was diluted.”

You looked over to him to finish with what you were rambling about- when you noticed something strange. He seemed… tense? His hands were curled up into light fists, and his movements seemed a bit more ‘angular’ than how a normal person walked.

Wait fuck what did you do. He was fine like three seconds ago- so why did he seem uncomfortable just now? Was it something you said?

Fuck.

In an attempt to lighten the mood- you resumed with what you were saying (with some minor edits).

“You know what that means? You playfully elbowed him- trying to save this conversation. “You’re a special guy, Link. One of a kind.”

You looked in his direction him in the hopes of catching his eye and sending a stupidly cheeky wink his way, but he was looking nowhere near you. Instead, he was turned away and was blushing slightly. His ears practically glowed with a rosy fluster- and you seemed to accidentally do the opposite of what you originally wanted to do. His fists curled up ever so further into his palm as he tried to contain his hilariously funny embarrassment.

Oops.

At least he wasn’t as upset now. But it was still funny seeing him get flustered over something so minuscule.

What a dork. He never even answered your original question. And there was no way you were going to say something else. You decided to let that embarrassment brew inside that fucker. It was all on him if he wanted to end that.

You remembered, again, how slow he was in terms of having a conversation. While it was slightly annoying, you were sure he'd get into the habit of small talk with practice if you kept on talking to him. Even today, he seemed more open to you than last night. 

It wasn’t by much, granted, but it was something- and proof that he could learn to talk more, and communicate what he was thinking. 

It was as if you had to teach a toddler to talk, but this time the toddler was The Hero of Hyrule himself- an adult- who knew words and clearly has at least some sort of a vocabulary; but chose never to say anything. Why he chose to stay mostly quiet was still unknown to you. 

Not that it really was any of your business to know- but your curiosity was just too strong for you to not imagine possible explanations.

For whatever reason, he reminded you of a child. You know you’ve thought about that before, but it was really true. It was as if he missed out on an actual childhood or something, he just- doesn’t know how to act in social situations. But it’s not like he’s been training ever since he was born or something to be a knight- that would be ridiculous- and quite unheard of. 

While that would make sense in certain ways (and explain much of his lack of social skills)- you can disconfirm that thought quite easily. 

No parents would rip such an important part of their life away from their child. Childhood is for children to learn, and play- and is a crucial part of developing a person as a whole. And the single thought that someone might take that away-

That disgusted you.

Though, you weren’t fully sure if it actually acted like a child- or if it was your motherly nature grasping onto nothing. Both were equally plausible explanations.

You were always good with kids though, and when Cottla and Koko were born- you often tried to help out with taking care of them and playing with them. Especially after their mother died. Dorian always seemed to be grateful when you played with them so he could have them off his hands for once- so you always made room in your day to care for them. 

You haven’t seen them in awhile. You wonder if they’re okay.

* * *

The tall horse head of the stable peeks over the grassy hill that was beside you. As the path turns, you’re able to see more and more of settlement as the hill reveals it. You have never actually been to Riverside Stables before, despite often frequenting said places. This one wasn’t too different from the ‘normal’ stable though. There were some trees on either side of it that provided some shade and coverage, and as the name suggests- it was next to a river. A rather large one, that was. Behind the actual stable was what looked like little patches of land in the water that had small bridges attached to them that connected the land with the mini ‘islands’. They were fenced off and had some animals inside them. Some horses were fenced up in stalls next to the building that you assumed were the owner’s horses. In front of the stalls were some tarped-up supplies and a cooking pot. The usual, basically.

You have never particularly enjoyed the look of stables, there was no variety in the appearance of them other than their surroundings, and they just looked funny to you. Like, you UNDERSTOOD why they put a giant fucking horse head on top of the stables, but it was creepy as all hell. Honestly, that shit was nightmare fuel.

For fuck’s sake, the horse had TEETH. 

But you guess there were a couple things about the design that you liked. The colours were mostly nice, and there was always art painted on the top of the building that depicted people and horses. It was kinda cute.

Everything else was awful.

The horse looked like it was going to fall down and crush the stables at any moment, which would be a hilariously horrible situation. At least that might encourage the owners to redesign the place. Hopefully, they pick a less eye-burning design next time.

But as funny as that would be, it would be bad for you. You would be forced to sleep outside in the wilderness while the reconstructed the monstrous buildings. Saying that makes you sound a lot more ‘posh’ and ‘privileged’ than you actually are, though. 

You just never felt safe camping out in the woods by yourself- while it was something you COULD do, you didn’t enjoy it as much as one would think. Like, you’re someone that ENJOYS nature, so it would make sense for you to like sleeping outside by yourself, right? No.

You’re a simple person, you like a nice comfy bed to melt into after a long day of travel. You’re the kind of person that pays extra rupees for the ‘soft’ bed- because it’s so worth it when you wake up the next morning.

The two of you continue along the path, and over in front of the stables. There are a couple people outside, including that ‘Beedle’ guy. 

You think is name is like, ‘Terry’ or something- but calling him Beedle is much easier to remember. He was a weird dude.

Link continued walking past Riverside Stables though, and over to another building. It was glowing orange and had designs all over it. 

Wait fuck.-

OH, THAT’S A SHRINE!

Curiosity and enthusiasm filled you- and you sprinted past Link and over to the shrine to investigate it. From what you can remember, it looks exactly the same as the one in Kakariko Village. How that was even possible, you had no idea.

Even things like the stables- which looked the same- had slight differences in them. It was impossible to make two things that looked the exact same- so why did this give you such a déjà vu feeling just by looking at it? 

Cautiously, you ran your hand over the glowing amber material- and what you expected to be warm- was cold. Which confused you indefinitely. Glowing things were almost always warm- especially things that shared the same colour as the shrine’s glow. Fire was hot, the sun was hot, fire arrows or weapons were hot, fire keese were hot- but why wasn’t the shine hot? It shared the same colour and glow- so why didn’t it match the temperature? The coldness of it was something you expected from something like a luminous stone or the ‘ice’ versions of what you stated before. But those all glowed blue, and not orange.

You had learned all your life that ‘glowing orange’ things were hot- so why didn’t this follow the same rule? 

Maybe it was switched or something (which still didn’t make much sense), so maybe if it glowed blue it would be warm?

The surface of it was eerily smooth, too- and had basically no bumps or ridges in it that would suggest that it was cut from something. It reminded you of something like water, or ice. You retracted your hand and inspected it carefully but there was nothing on your hand, none of the substance had come off. What the fuck was this shit made out of?

You knew better than to try and pry and cut this stuff though. If this lasted over 10 000 years of wear and tear, then you’re pretty sure it’s going to resist whatever you use to try to pry at it. 

Speaking of which, the shrine was in fucking fabulous condition considering it was made so long ago, how was that even possible? It looked like it was made only a couple years ago. The only signs of ‘wear’ that you could tell, was some bumps and ridges on the brown-ish material. But that wasn’t even that much evidence- for all you know it could’ve been made to look like that.

You stood back to get a full look of the building.

There was the Sheikah symbol on top of the structure that seemed to be carved out of the material. And as you said before- it glowed an eye-catching amber. A light brown material was layered over top of the amber, and it twisted and curled into strange flowing shapes. 

The entrance of it was sealed off, with the door appearing to have some sort of ancient text written on it. Next to the door was a pedestal, that sat raised up and tilted outwards. It was clearly meant to open the door of the shrine- but how you would activate it eluded you. 

You looked down to see that you were standing on something- it was a circular... ‘Thing’. Actually, you didn’t quite know what it was, but you assumed it was just there for decorative purposes. 

Glancing back at the Sheikah eye again reminded you-

Didn’t Link have the Shrines marked off on his Sheikah Slate?

You eagerly turned towards him to see what he was doing. 

Though, he wasn’t even at the shrine yet. He was just slowly walking up to where you were. 

Well, you guess you DID sprint pretty fast towards the shrine.

“Hey, slowpoke!” You called after him “You coming here in the next century, or what?”

Instead of responding like a normal person, he opted to just look confused at you though. 

Right. You’re not sure what you were expecting. If he doesn’t understand most social things, then there was no way that he would understand sayings.

“It’s- uh- slowpoke means someone who moves or acts slowly. It's an idiom- and the other part was just me teasing about how long it’s taking you to get here compared to me-” You explained, completely ruining the joke.

He still stayed silent. And gave you the same blank stare as always.

“I was implying that It would- uh take you a century to get here because of how slow you were walking- it wasn’t that funny of a joke-” You waved a hand to dismiss what you said. “Don’t worry about it.”

He gave you a rather gentle nod compared to what you were used to receiving. Usually, it was a strong and affirmative dip, but this one was more like a slow wave.

You wonder if he has strong neck muscles from all of that nodding. That would be hilarious.

“Anyways-” You said, desperately trying to drop your failed joke, and bury it away forever. “I’m guessing that you have something to do with the shrines, don’t you?”

He exercised his neck again.

“Ah, figured so.” Even though you had assumed you were right, there was still an immense satisfaction that came from knowing that you were correct. “What do you think is inside?”

“Some puzzles and a spirit orb.”

“Hah?- I mean pardon?” You replied, throwing all manners out the window for a brief moment.

“I have to complete a puzzle, or pass a test of some sort- then I’m rewarded with a spirit orb.”

“What’s a…” you tilted your head at him, “‘Spirit orb’?” 

It was always a little jarring to you when he spoke. He would just randomly switch between being mute, and using his voice- and you could never predict when it would happen.

“I don’t really know how to describe them- they’re like this big.” Link cuffed his hands into a ball-like shape “And when I get enough of them- they... Make me stronger.”

“Oh?” You asked curiously, “How so?”

He went quiet for a moment to try and figure out how to explain it to you. He tilted his head slightly downwards and held his hand up to his chin while he thought.

“I’m.. not quite sure.” He said, glancing back up to you, “It makes so I can run for longer, and do more- or I can withstand more hits from monsters.”

“DUDE!” You exclaimed, startling Link enough that he almost stumbled backwards- but instead held a defensive stance. “THAT’S SO COOL!”

He looked, reasonable stunned.

“HOW ARE YOU NOT AMAZED BY THAT- THAT’S LIKE THE COOLEST SHIT I’VE EVER HEARD.” You grabbed onto his hands and excitedly shook them, before proceeding to let them go almost immediately and practically spinning around.

He looked more shocked than anything. And maybe a little bit intimidated.

“I LITERALLY CAN’T TELL IF I’M OVERREACTING OR IF YOU’RE UNDERREACTING.”

You were probably overreacting a little, but honestly, you didn’t care- like what the fuck that’s so cool.

“Dude what are you waiting for open that shit up!” You sort of pushed him towards the pedestal. “Don’t let me stop you!”

Link systematically unhooked the Sheikah Slate from his belt- and held it up towards the pedestal. Somehow, the shrine responded to that, and a blue flame-like light burst up around the circular platform that you were standing on- surrounding you, before receding back into wherever it came from. 

A child-like wonder overcame you, as you stood there- mystified, and thoroughly puzzled.

Holy shit this is so cool.

The shrine’s glow dimmed for a moment, before returning back- but this time a different colour; blue! The Sheikah eye at the top of the shrine was now glowing the same orange that everything else was emitting before. Strange.

The doors of it had also opened too, 

You practically hopped where you were standing, impatiently waiting to go into the shrine and check it out.

“Wait here,” he said- while hooking the Sheikah Slate back onto his belt. “It’s safer.”

“What?” You almost gawked- you had never seen a shrine activated before, and he was really going to try to make you wait outside? Yeah right. “I’ll be fine, don’t worry about me.”

He just shook his head in response though.

“Seriously?" You said, with disappointment creeping up onto your face. WHAT ABOUT THE SPIRIT ORB SHIT? You wanted to see that.

Link shifted, then cautiously nodded.

Ughhhhhh, alright, you guess.

You decided not to push it further out of respect for Link- the poor guy looked like he was going to piss himself. So being the petty bitch you are, just groaned and sat down on the ground. You held your head in your hands and smushed your cheeks upwards dramatically to make it look like you were bored as all hell. And to make Link feel a little bad for not letting your childish ass into the shrine.

But come on- SPIRIT ORBS. How can someone NOT want to see that shit?

He walked underneath the opening and onto a circular platform. For a brief moment- the shrine shook, before carrying Link downwards into who knows where. 

As soon as the shrine carried him down out of view, you slumped against the shrine with your arms folded. The steps of the shrine acted almost like a chair for you, as you leaned against it, bitterly. Some little pebbles and stones surrounded the shrine, and with nothing better to do with your time, you decided to throw them in an overdramatic way of conveying boredom.

You could see storm clouds inching its way above you, but your stupidly stubborn ass wanted to be sitting in the exact same spot that you were sitting in when he left. 

* * *

Just as you threw the last rock within your reach, a drop of crystal-clear water appeared on your skin. 

Great. 

You usually loved the rain, but this time, it only managed to sour your mood even further. It’s rained like, two days in a row now? Fucking hell man. 

At least it wasn’t raining that hard.

But as soon as you thought that- the light showers proceeded to turn into a torrential downpour.

The rain fell in crazy chaotic drops, with the gusting wind carrying them in wild moments, almost pulsating. 

It runs down your face as a thin layer, it’s freezing your skin.

You pulled your hood over your saturated form as you sit in the pouring rain- not that it had much use, you were already soaked. It was more of a security-blanket type thing for you.

It fell down constantly like an endless bucket of water being poured down from the skies. You looked up to the clouds, your face was soaked despite the hood. Scratch that, everything was soaked. The dark clouds loomed over Hyrule and consumed its lands in water. You shivered as another wave of ice hit you- and looked down at the puddles forming on the ground. 

Goddammit, why did you have to be this stubborn.

The water seemed so cold it stung. Every drop felt like it stole your heat, taking you closer to hypothermia. Well, it wasn’t in any way cold enough to freeze you, but you sure felt like it. You were cold. Your body wasn’t used to the seeping feeling that was leeching at your skin. You tucked your hands into your arms for warmth and huddled further into yourself. It wasn't just the rain that was causing the discomfort though, you could deal with the rain- it was also the water that swelled at your feet, unable to soak into the muddy ground. 

Granted, you could go into the stables for cover like a normal person, but you just didn’t care at this point. You were soaked head to toe already. You dug your grave, and now you had to lie in it.

The Sheikah eye had switched from amber to blue, and a few seconds later- Link had emerged from the shrine- looking as fresh as you’d ever seen him. It took him, what, like 45 minutes? And you were drenched but too stubborn to go into the stables.

You stood up and turned to look at him, crossing your arms- not in an upset way- it was just to help you not freeze. Though you were still sort of upset. “You certainly took your time, didn’t you?” 

He actually looked surprised for a moment, as if it didn't cross his mind that you would be waiting out here for him- while he played around in the shrine.

“...Sorry..” He said- while looking down sort of uncomfortably. Unlike you, he seemed completely unfazed of the rain. It clattered against his face, running down almost like tears down to his chin- and threaded through his head, and he didn’t even blink.

What he was wearing seemed a lot warmer, too. He was sporting a green pull-over that looked like it retained body-heat well, along with gloves.

He looked sort of like a guilty puppy- and almost instantly your ‘anger’ disappeared and was replaced with a need to comfort and reassure him.

“Hey-! No, it’s okay! Don’t worry. I’m not upset.” You said- while jogging up to him. “I’m just cold, and need a change of clothes or something.”

That seemed to reassure him enough, and he looked up at you again. But then, almost instantly- his face twisted with genuine concern. 

“Why didn’t you get out of the rain?” He asked, with his brows furrowed up.

Oh god, how would you answer this? ‘I was being stubborn because you didn’t let my childish ass into the shrine so I sat out here like a loser- having a hissy-fit’?

It was nice knowing that he cared enough about you to ask- but this would be one hell of a question to answer.

“I-” You started, but- then the sounds of thunder came crashing around you, interrupting your response. Literally, the most convenient thing that has ever happened to you.

“Holy fuck- let’s head inside before we get struck by lightning.” You said, practically pushing him towards the stable.

Link didn't protest while you scooted him inside, but he definitely did give you one hell of a suspicious look for not answering his question.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! It's me Kuro here!  
> I got a little bit carried away with the descriptions- so I didn't get to fit in everything that I wanted to in this chapter. So next chapter will hopefully have some more characterization of Link, as promised!
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading! <3


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